Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

a simple case because the woman was accused of burning her kid on the arse, the judge forced us to find her not guilty of intentionally causing serious injury, but asked us to decide on the recklessly cause serious injury, it was pretty open and shut because the Judge basically told us to find her guilty by keeping in the charge that had exactly the same evidence. In any case I knew she was guilty from the time I saw her as she never looked innocent, never cried during the trial or tried to act innocent. She had a Russian translator but her English was passable on the record of interview and she actually made the point of choosing 8 men on the Jury. So much information was kept from us that it was pretty obvious we were not given the whole facts. I was a victim once and the monster was found not guilty and continued for another 8years till he was caught, I am not really afraid of the complaint but I would feel better having a lawyer advise me just in case. I am educated and respected member of the community; I just regret the affair now. Can this woman juror really complain about me? Whats the charge for having an affair with another Juror? Won�t the Judge, police and prosecutor actually be happy with me for passing justice? Mostly worried about my partner finding out about the affair. Plus cant I sure for breach of privacy as I was told tha I could not be identified in any way shape or form. Please Help.


Asked on 4/25/10, 2:49 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Dismissing the charge of intentional conduct while letting the jury decide the lesser charge of reckless conduct was not an instruction to find the defendant guilty. It is common for some information to be kept from jurors, but there are good reasons for this and jurors are not allowed to infer the defendant's guilt on this basis.

It sounds like you made up your mind about the case long before the jury began deliberating, which is misconduct. That would be true even if you didn't have an affair with another juror.

I'm not aware of a rule that forbids relationships between jurors, but that does not mean you are off the hook. If the other juror is aware of misconduct you committed (or at least seem to have committed) then she is doing the right thing by reporting it.

You ask "Won�t the Judge, police and prosecutor actually be happy with me for passing justice?", but justice is not served by jurors who vote to convict based upon whether the defendant "looked innocent" to them or acted the way they thought she should act. You also forget that the "judge, police and prosecutor" are not the only people who matter here; the defendant and her lawyer do, too, and they surely are not going to be happy with you. The judge probably won't be either; he's probably much more concerned with whether you did your job properly than with whether you reached the result he believed was correct. And for all we know, he thinks the correct verdict would have been "not guilty".

You're right that it would be wise to get a lawyer. I suggest that you start looking for one now.

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Answered on 5/04/10, 2:31 pm


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